Friday, September 28, 2007

I’ve been teaching The Odyssey this fall, a remarkably fun tale that I think ought to be retitled Everybody’s Talking About Agamemnon. Despite the reputation of Odysseus as a swashbuckling hero in the mould of Austin Powers (women want him, men want to be him), the man is startlingly addicted to gossip. I had always imagined the Sirens’ song to be hypnotically sensual, an irresistible call of female sexuality. Instead, the Sirens woo Odysseus by whispering, “Come here – we’ve got something to tell you.” Information is power in this epic legend, and it is spread entirely by word of mouth (that is, by “Rumor who is oftenest sent by Zeus to carry tidings”).

This week we moved from ancient Greece to King Arthur’s court. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as with The Odyssey, gossip is a central concern. Like Odysseus, Sir Gawain finds that his reputation precedes him wherever he goes – but in Sir Gawain’s case, the reputation is for “polished pearls of perfect speech” and amazing feats of “dazzling deportment.” The knights of Camelot are the subject of gossip, but they are also tireless purveyors of it – such is the cost and benefit of trading wilderness savagery for the civilized pleasures of city life.

Gossip is, by definition and etymology, associated with women (as Sage so beautifully chronicled awhile back), yet these archetypal male heroes inhabit a world of gossip – and in many ways, their worth is measured by the gossip they inspire (something that remains true for celebrities today, though in our culture what we mean by “celebrate” is “circulate internet sex tapes”).

The blogosphere, on the other hand, is home to the very best kind of gossip. In Veronica Mitchell’s truth in blogging post, one of the most tantalizing morsels is her allusion to a lunch with Antique Mommy during which they “talked about bloggers we read and why, and bloggers we don’t read and why not.” There is a certain candour that is possible face to face that we usually avoid in our public postings. If someone is mortally annoyed by the phenomenon of Wordless Wednesday, it may seem ungracious to say so in a blog post, but in the giddy intimacy of a face-to-face meeting, we may not even need alcohol to loosen our tongues and unleash a flood of blogging secrets.

I’m only a two-hour drive away from Toronto (Blogging Hub of the Universe!) so I’ve been lucky enough to meet other bloggers on several occasions. And we’ve talked about you. We’ve been less careful in these conversations than we are in our posts – but for all that, the conversations are invariably kind, affectionate. After this year’s BlogHer, my left-out feelings were alleviated almost entirely by the news that Jenny had embarrassed herself by insisting that I live in London, England. Being talked about is currency in the blogosphere, and it’s also fun.

So let’s gossip a little this weekend, okay? I’ll get us started. Have you visited Mrs. Chicky lately? She’s got news. (So has HBM.) The Cheaty Monkey has a baby brother, and at least twopeople are celebrating birthdays.

News, however, is perhaps the most innocuous and least interesting form of gossip. How about a game of match the blogger to her reputation?

There are no wrong answers to this quiz – if the label fits, wear it! Now quiz me – how many bloggers do I know by reputation?

And hey – while we’re talking shop, I just added those bookmarking icons below each post. What do you think? Are they annoying? Does anybody actually use them? Those of you who have them – have you been getting any traffic from them?

That kgirl. She's so hip and funny and casual. I'd really like to kvetch with her.

Did I say that out loud?

BTW, do I notice yet one more loving internet dig at my choice of the words "friend" and "sister"?

As for the bookmark and skirt thingamagies, they terrify me. I can't even bring myself to figure out what they are all about. All the bloggers-in-the-know seem to use them and I openly fear knowledge for fear that someone might actually think one day that I am a blogger-in-the-know. With that title comes a responsibility I just couldn't bear.

For the record, I have decided I like Wordless Wednesday. It's like a little eye candy each week, it takes no time to come by and gawk, and commenting always feels optional--at least more optional than it does with wordier posts. Besides this is a visual as well as textual medium.

Can you tell it's Friday afternoon? Maybe, I'll shut up now. It's just that I do so love me a good gossip session.

You are one of the few people I know who has actually heard of and would write a post that includes "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". I am a HUGE fan of Arthurian legend. (Remember that if we do, in fact, have another boy in November...) ;-)

Teehee. You know I loves me the gossip aspect of the bloggy get-together, but I do feel odd compunctions about talking about Absent Digital Friends. Like it's not sporting. But I'm excessively rule-bound.

Pregnancy seems to be rampant in the blogosphere this week (Amanda at toddlywinks too!). I hope it's not the water....

I was thinking Beck for "Domestic Diva/Cupcake Queen," for sure. For "Friend to Many, Sister to All" I thought of Slouching Mom, because she is. But then I had an "aha!" because jen calls everyone "sister." So can I say both? I just did.

This is such a fun post. I've been terribly burned by gossip, and so now it feels very precarious to sit with a dear friend and talk about our other friends - but it still DOES have its siren's call.1) Blush.2) Alpha Dogma3) I dunno! When you reveal all, I'll check her blog out.4) Jen5) Um...?

One of the things that bugs me about blogging is the inability to gossip about other bloggers. Like: she said this sly thing, I think she was talking about me, was she? If not who was she talking about? etc etc. Gossip often serves as reassurance, seems to me.

As for your bookmarking things...like Mad I have no idea what they are! One of these days I will get up on all that stuff.

It is funny because I see blogging (or at least the blogging I do) as the opposite of gossip in a way. This is where I go to find out/read about/ relate too/sympathize and empathize about real things. Does that sound strange? I am not talking about gossip sites like Cheaty's obviously and I am not sure why I don't equate gossip with the blogs I normally read.

I do enjoy a good gossip with another blogger, but I find there are usually so many other things to talk about, we often don't get there... our visit in April was a bit of a shock to discover the sort of backside of the blogosphere. A good shock.

Keep the social bookmark thingies. I have a skirt button and I never got any traffic for it. When I tried to skirt-bookmark some else's post I gave up after being asked to write a summary and about three other things. Sorry, that's a little too much.

They don't annoy me though. There sure are people who dig digg, I don't know though if they live in the sphere of mommyblogging.

We're cool. This was the same outing that I embarrassed myself in front of Amy Sedaris, accidentally cut off some of my hair in front of Chloe Dao, felated a licorice stick and told everyone that Mom 101 looked like a porn star I was familiar with.

Mortification is almost an artform with me. Glad it could at least bring a little laughter to the world.

I'll confess I love to sit around and gossip with friends. It is a little hard to do when it comes to blogging. There are a couple of local bloggers I get to meet up with now and then, and we do talk about other bloggers a little, but they don't read nearly as many as I do.

But there's always instant messenger. You can have a great one-on-one conversation over IM. It loses some of the intimacy of a face-to-face, but still gives you the ability to kick back and gossip away.